美国国家公共电台 NPR Steve Bannon, Out As Chief White House Strategist, Heads Back To Breitbart

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Today is Steve Bannon's last day as President Trump 1's chief strategist. Bannon was the populist architect of Trump's election victory last year. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders described his departure as a mutual 2 agreement between Bannon and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. But as NPR's Scott Horsley reports, Bannon has plenty of enemies inside and outside of the White House.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE 3: It was exactly a year and a day ago that Steve Bannon took over as CEO of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. He's widely credited with salvaging 4 what had been a foundering 5 operation, but that was part of his problem. Trump bristles 6 at the idea anyone else deserves credit for his unlikely win.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Mr. Bannon came on very late. You know that. I went through 17 senators, governors. And I won all the primaries. Mr. Bannon came on very much later than that.

HORSLEY: Long before his official role in the campaign, though, Bannon had been a cheerleader for Trump as executive chairman of Breitbart News, a conservative website he turned into a platform for the self-described alt-right. Bannon and Breitbart were a good match for Trump's anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric 7. And this week, Bannon was one of the few White House staffers to embrace the president's controversial comments on Charlottesville. Nevertheless, Trump voiced only lukewarm support for his chief strategist when he spoke 8 to reporters on Tuesday.

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TRUMP: He is not a racist 9. I can tell you that. He's a good person. He actually gets a very unfair press in that regard. But we'll see what happens with Mr. Bannon.

HORSLEY: Bannon may have done time at Goldman Sachs and Harvard Business School, but his politics, like his wardrobe, are decidedly anti-establishment. Back in February, he told conservative activists 10 he's happy to blow up government bureaucracies and the traditional news media.

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STEVE BANNON: If you think they're going to give you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken. Every day - every day, it is going to be a fight.

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HORSLEY: But that take-no-prisoners style which was so successful on the campaign trail proved a liability in the White House. The original shock-and-awe travel ban was thrown out by the federal courts. Bannon's high-pressure sales tactics for Obamacare repeal 11 backfired with lawmakers. And Bannon openly feuded 12 with administration colleagues, including economic adviser 13 Gary Cohn and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. When ABC's Chuck Todd asked Trump's national security adviser if he could even work with Bannon, H.R. McMaster sidestepped the question.

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H R MCMASTER: I am ready to work with anybody who will help advance the president's agenda and advance the security prosperity of the American people.

CHUCK TODD: Do you believe Steve Bannon does that?

MCMASTER: I believe that everyone who works in the White House should be motivated by that goal.

HORSLEY: Earlier this week, Bannon raised eyebrows 14 when he telephoned liberal magazine editor Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect 15 and dismissed the white nationalists in Charlottesville as losers, a fringe element and a collection of clowns. By some accounts, Bannon had already tendered his resignation when he gave that interview. The headline in Kuttner's magazine was unrepentant.

ROBERT KUTTNER: Steve Bannon sounded like a man who feels - damn the torpedoes 16 and full speed ahead. And I think he's going to do what he's going to do. His enemies are going to do what they're going to do. And that's who he is.

HORSLEY: Hours after leaving his White House job, Bannon returned to Breitbart, where he chaired the evening's editorial meeting. That suggests the administration's chief bomb thrower is not surrendering, just taking his weapons outside the White House and possibly taking aim at his former rivals on the inside. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.